Mao Zedong famously said China and North Korea were as close as lips are to teeth. Yet, during his entire eight-year tenure, US President Barack Obama refused to talk to North Korea unless it first pledged to denuclearise. The plain fact is that the US has no credible military option against North Korea. But if denuclearisation is made the sole purpose of engagement with North Korea, diplomacy will fail, as it did under George W Bush. Trump has called North Korea “a big, big problem”.

Source: Hindustan Times February 22, 2017 12:11 UTC